Shel Silverstein was a great poet and philosopher (at least I think so!), and one of his best poems is entitled Smart: Smart My dad gave me one dollar bill ‘Cause I’m his smartest son, And I swapped it for two shiny quarters ‘Cause two is more than one! And then i took the quarters […]
As you might have guessed, I am a big fan of fables, and the following one applies directly to the idea of students challenging themselves and working hard. Aesop’s Fable, “The Ant and the Grasshopper” Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow. All day long the ant would work hard, […]
Yesterday, I sent out two emails to incoming freshman (and I expect I will send out a few more before the end of summer) asking for more information on why their last semester grades had a serious decline. These are not fun emails, as these students are ones where there are serious issues with poor […]
It is summertime, which means that the summer reading lists are out in full force. In my house (with a rising sixth and a rising eighth grader), there is now a great deal of moaning going on whenever I bring up the dreaded “reading” word. Yes, I understand that school is just now out for […]
The last change that we will be making to the freshman application has to do with your high school grades. Over the last 6 years, the number of freshman applicants has grown from roughly 12,000 in 2005 to over 18,000 in 2010. At the same time, the number of admissions staff that review transcripts (both […]
Since we are coming up on freshman final decisions shortly, and this is also the time when a vast number of high school juniors begin their college visits, I thought I would go over the concept of grades and GPA once again. Remember, this is how UGA looks at things, as I do not speak […]
The fifth part of the review is already known to most everyone, but I will go ahead and share it with you. In this section, we are looking at an applicant’s academic progress over the 3-3.5 years of high school where we have grades, looking at both the overall picture and the grade trends. When […]
I have said it before and I will say it again, three letters cause more confusion in college admissions that any other; GPA. I have made it a point this year to try and stay away from the word GPA as much as possible (unless I am forced to talk about mid-ranges), and today brought […]
Every year about this time, the GPA question arises, starting with a low rumble and ending in April with a chorus of voices all wondering, “How does UGA calculate GPA’s”. Because there are so many school systems using such a wide variety of grading scales, my best answer is always that we start everyone out […]
